Miscellaneous Forum

Is this airline really that bad? I am looking at some flights for October because I might go to New Orleans. The cheapest flights by far are from AA (or BA but flown by AA).
I looked at some airline review sites and the comments don't make me happy.

People don't write airline reviews when they are satisfied; they write them when they are pissed off. So I would not take the fact that most of the reviews are negative as a true picture. American Airlines is no worse--and no better--than any of the major US carriers. They are all fairly lame when it comes to international coach travel, but you won't die from it. If the flight is cheap and price is important to you, you may as well go for it.

Hi Ingrid
You know what I think
Flying is always stressful ,any airline has their problems
Some are better then others for sure .
But for Lori & I the bottom line is how much does it cost .
So we just fly with the airline who has the best deal going .
Reviews just don't do it for us because people are so different in what they like or don't like

Hansi

Since I fly only to european destinations, it does not really matter how the flight is because it will be short.

To fly to NO I have to make at least one transfer and most likely two, so when I read about missed transfers, bags that don't arrive, old planes and tight seating it is not really reassuring. I don't really care about the service level of the flight attendants, old entertainment systems and not getting alcoholic drinks. Because I don't need them, but the rest is rather essential

True Hans, there is about a 150 eur price difference between AA and the other flights. I can do a lot of nice things with that.

I know people mostly only complain and not make positive comments

American Airlines is not great, but not terrible. It certainly should be tolerable on a trans-atlantic flight. Of the US carriers' international service (IMO), Continental WAS the best (we'll see if this remains the case after their merger with United), US Airways pretty good, United and American in the middle, and Delta/Northwest bringing up the rear.

And here is the problem with reviewing airlines: I completely disagree with travelfrosch's ranking :-) In my opinion, Delta is actually one of the best, then Continental (pre-merger, let's see what happens now), then UA, then AA, and US Airlines a distant last. Anyway, all of them will get you and your bags to your destination the vast majority of the time. The bad stories you hear happen on every airline.

I very rarely check bags, but when I have had airlines lose them, the two culprits have been BA (the airline I fly most often, and one of the absolute worst as far as baggage tracking systems) and US.

As a resident of the Dallas, Texas, area, I have to fly American most of the time (DFW Airport is mostly American Airlines), and in order to maximize miles on one airline group, I voluntarily fly American elsewhere.

I understand the nature of the comments you're seeing...some AA employees are grumpy, and it doesn't help that AA is flying more totally full flights than ever (you should see the difference on the rare half empty flight - the cabin crew are all smiles) ;-).

However, the grumpiness is partially caused by the fact that AA management has put the screws to the unions into terms of getting concessions to avoid bankruptcy. Now, this doesn't make any difference to you, a European, but to me, a US taxpayer, I am absolutely delighted that AA never declared bankruptcy when all the other legacy airlines did...because the first thing those airlines did when declaring bankruptcy was to dump the employee pension funds on the US taxpayer. Really, the AA unions ought to be happy that AA hasn't done this, because the employees of those other airlines lost a lot of their retirement money through the bankruptcy process (the US government won't cover all of the pension fund, just part of it).

In any case, the comments above are correct - AA is not worse than the other legacy airlines, and for frequent flyers, it's quite OK.

Some things to help you on your flight:
1. take a direct flight if you can.
2. if you must change planes, keep all the flights on the same airline, or, at a minimum, in the same airline group (AA is in the oneworld alliance, as is BA). if something goes wrong, you will get better service if you fly all in the same group.
3. if you're flying AA (and not BA), take the Boeing 777 instead of the 767 if you can. the 767s are old and not very pleasant in coach.
4. check out www.seatguru.com for good and bad seats on those planes.
5. note that for domestic segments, AA charges baggage fees for non-frequent flyers - this may or may not impact your $150 savings. note that I think you can avoid these fees by being a frequent flyer on any oneworld airline, not just American.

Yep, $150 is a lot of crawfish ;-) have fun!

Bill

Chicago is one of AAs hubs so I use it frequently, as said above it's no better or worse than any other carrier. It's sort of the BA equivalent for North America, it's not a budget carrier although with all the new fees they attack you with, it might as well be. If you are flying from Europe, they probably don't hit you with luggage fees but double check that, I know flying between US cities you have to pay to check a bag.

Ingrid
You will ask 10 people and you will get 10 different replies
Lori & I have seen it all ,bad flights bad food bad wharever
It sucks at that moment but after you get to where you are going and after you have your luggage intact you are in good shape then .
Forget about what could go wrong
Make a decision and then live with that decision
Nobody really knows what can happen in this world of ours Just hope for the best and that is just how I feel about it Ingrid

Hansi

I flew Heathrow - Los Angeles direct last year and then changed at New York coming back. It was OK - the food was actually quite good but the entertainment screens in the back of the seats was faulty. The plane was quite old too I guess but it was OK for the price. The transfer at New York was fine. And yes - I would fly with them again.

It has been my experience that local flights and international flights are very different within the same airlines.

>"It has been my experience that local flights and international flights are very different within the same airlines."

I agree. In fact, I'd agree with travelmad's assessment of US Airways as among the worst... for domestic flights. Their international flights out of Philadelphia are actually not that bad, though. I will concede Philadelphia airport is not a fun place to change planes because of the frequent gate changes and lengthy flight delays.

I've been flying AA for over 25 years and have had good and not-so-good experiences...from baggage handling to cancellations but also superb flights and service and great pricing..it all depends on each situation.

Any flight that gets me safely to a destination with the minimum of hassles is fine with me and the majority of my 100+ flights with AA have done this.

I haven't flown them but am travelling to the US in June and was going to book some internal flights with them. I had selected the flight and when paying for it over the internet it would not accept my booking because I was a resident of Aust. I then went to AA Aust site and the same flight was double the price - what a rip off, was so annoyed but luckily found similar flight with Delta at comparable to AA US site.

What a bummer Meggy. Glad you found an alternative though :)